The Most Fertile Woman: 39-Year-Old Mother From Uganda Has 38 Biological Children From The Same Man

In East Africa, a mom struggles to raise her 38 biological children. Yes, that’s not a typo.

At age 39, Mariam Nabatanzi has a record number of living children – 38. Can you imagine? Here’s her story.

Meet Mariam Nabatanzi: The Most Fertile Woman In Uganda

Mariam’s story first reached the world after documentarian Kassim Kayira, a former BBC journalist, interviewed her and published pictures and videos of the story on Facebook and YouTube.

According to Kassim, Mariam’s story begins when she was married off by her family at the tender age of 13. Her husband was allegedly abusive from the start. While this isn’t an uncommon tale for East African child brides, the family situation that followed is certainly unique and jaw dropping.

Over less than three decades, Mariam would give birth to 44 babies, six of whom didn’t survive. She had all these children in her own home. All but the youngest was born vaginally and without pain medications. It’s unclear why exactly the youngest, who’s still an infant, was born via c-section.

The oldest child is 23-years old. The genders of the children are 10 girls and 28 are boys. Three sets are twins. Three sets are quadruplets. Four sets are triplets. Eight are single births.

According to Mariam, she had sought medical advice about her thriving and unusual state of fertility, but she was told that there was nothing that could be done to change her situation.
Mariam’s husband, who is the father of all her children, apparently abandoned his family after their last child was born. In Kassim’s interview, Mariam shares that it should be a crime and that leaving children behind without parental love is something they’ll never recover from enduring.